cottington's so crafty: Socks for Everyone (except Dad)

This will be known as the sock post! I knit up three lovely pairs of socks recently, and for some reason, hand-knit socks make me so happy - especially when the socks are for Camden and Tiberius. Something about wee hand-knit socks on little kids....

My fancy socks are the Kai Mei pattern by Cookie A. (She is well-known for her awesome patterns, but maybe most famous (aha!) for the Monkey Sock, which is a free pattern - and which I have yet to knit.) Kai Mei can be found in her book, Sock Innovation. (THIS link on Amazon shows that you may have to buy it used, though I'm sure it can be found new SOMEwhere, LOL.....It is also available on Kindle). I have knit one of her patterns before, but I can't, for the life of me, find a picture...and the socks were a gift for a friend. There is errata for this pattern. You can find a link on the pattern page on Ravelry and go from there. In this case, where the pattern comes from a book, I just pen the correct information directly onto the page in the book.

The pattern is very easy, and with this particular pair of socks, I wanted to do them concurrently, sort of - LOL....I did the leg portion of each one first, before going back to the first sock to finish it. I never cut the yarn, nor did I have to balls with which to work, so, I just knit from either end of the cake.

The yarn is Black Trillium Fibers, though I am only sort of sure the base is Pebble Sock, and I can't recall the colorway name at all, though surely the tag is somewhere in this house....It is a gorgeous blue with purple sort of peeking through. I purchased it years ago, and I'm glad I finally used it! The socks did take forever, though, in terms of the fact that I knit the legs months ago and only just got back to finishing them...like I seem to do with adult socks. I stuck with the original cast-on amount, as that is a good number for me, and I did add a repeat at the end - and added a few stitches for my bunion on the right sock. Of course.

Awesome!

As for Tiberius's sock, I can't remember the name of this yarn, either, as it seems it was an "extra" with something...I think it came with one of my Knit Purl sock club installments back in the day. I do know I purchased the orange at a local yarn store...why I purchased one 50 gram skein, I have no idea, but it works for heels and toes, eh? For his socks - and Camden's - I used Knitting Pure and Simple Easy Children's Lightweight Sock pattern, which is a paper pattern I'd picked up at a LYS back in the day. I love that I can use this pattern for them through part of elementary school! Camden's sock was knit using the orange and the Madelinetosh sock yarn used in socks I knit for Tiberius before he was born. I will totally be able to get one more pair out of this yarn, I am hoping....we will see! Even if it's just heels and toes for a sock for ME, LOL.

Tiberius's socks took six whole days, but Camden's seemed to drag on a bit...apparently, 52 stitches, as opposed to 44, is a difference of a MILLION :O They took almost a month, but they ARE pretty stinkin' cute. I'm noticing, though, especially with her socks, that my row gauge, as is always the case, seems especially tight when my STITCH gauge is on. It isn't a big deal, normally - except that we have a whole instep to consider. I really think I need to start lengthening the heel flap because of this. I did lengthen it a row or two on Camden's socks, but it probably needs to be more like four rows longer. The socks fit great around her foot and around her ankle/leg, but getting them up and over is a pain. I'm sure a soaking will loosen them up a bit, but something I need to remember, anyway.

Chubbs!

I LOVE these!

On another note....poor Matt needs hand-knit socks. I started some for him years ago....and have basically ripped them out and need to start over. Sad times. Soon enough!!!

And more family shenanigans....